Letting Go of Beliefs 101

By Cathy Eck

How Do I Know A Belief From the Truth?

I’m often asked the question, “What do I mean by beliefs?” People can relate to a belief in ghosts, Santa Claus, or the bogeyman. They can understand a belief in a certain religion, cultural concept, or family ritual. But few consider the possibility that the majority of their thoughts are merely beliefs. In fact, most of us think that our thoughts are true, and those other people are the ones who have beliefs.

We have all thought our beliefs so often and seen them manifest in our personal reality so frequently that we are certain that they are true. This is what makes letting go harder than it needs to be. That is why I share both a male (using win-win as a guide) and female (following emotions) way of letting go in “No Labels, No Lies” workshops.

Once you prove to yourself that an idea is merely a belief or lie, rather than the truth, forgiveness or letting go becomes natural. In fact, real forgiving is when you can say “thank you for giving me the chance to let go of another belief” because no one can do something to us unless we have a belief that lets them into our world.

Are You An Elephant?

Let me offer an example that makes it clear. If I say to you, “You are an elephant,” you would laugh. You don’t believe me, and you don’t grow a trunk. You would think I’m silly and laugh because you don’t believe you can turn into an elephant. But if I say to you, “You are stupid or you have some weird disease,” you accept it as perhaps true, especially if I’m an authority in your life. But, in truth, it is equally insane. You’ll give my comment attention and thought and probably take it quite seriously. And now, by virtue of your acceptance, it is part of your mind. You’ll run into situations to prove that you are stupid. You’ll find more symptoms appearing each day. One day, you’ll call yourself stupid and think you were born that way.

The easiest way to discern a belief is to understand what is true. All truth is positive. Words like peace, unconditional love, joy, harmony, freedom, and purity fit within the label of truth. Truth is always win-win. It always arises out of a loving intention for everyone and everything involved. Anything that is negative or results in a win-lose outcome is not true. It is merely a belief. And the word belief, remember, has the word lie within it.

The reality that we experience is the result of our beliefs. Therefore, reality is merely an effect. It is not the cause. The belief is the cause, and when the belief is gone, the false reality must follow.

The number of people who believe something false does not matter. This used to really trip me up. False has no power of its own. That is why people who want our trust, money, or power speak of negative events and then proceed to tell us how they will fix the events with some outer cure or solution.

Based on the above definition, concepts like war, disease, aging, poverty, and violence fall into the category of lies. That is good news, for when we remove these lies, we heal our personal mind, as well as our contribution to the world mind. Removing our labels and lies not only benefits us, it benefits the entire planet. It is the most compassionate and loving thing we can do for mother earth and our fellow human beings. And it doesn’t cost you a dime.

Letting Go of Beliefs

On this page, I’m going to list beliefs that are commonly seen as true. To prove to yourself that they are beliefs (not true), you only have to think about any one of them and notice that they don’t feel good. Or imagine that everyone had to comply with them, and you’ll see that they are not win-win because they don’t allow personal uniqueness and freedom. Letting go of beliefs is not hard once you learn how. It can be uncomfortable, but it is the price we pay for accepting beliefs earlier in our life.

Truth never has an emotional charge associated with it. The emotional charge that arises at the thought of any belief is all the proof you need to begin the process of letting them go. When even a small number of people completely let go of some the collective lies that we share, diseases will disappear, war will end, and people will live in health, harmony, and abundance. Letting go of beliefs can change the world.

The Legend

Many of these beliefs are based on a story that came to me in 1997. This story, while simple in principle, had all the information that I share with you today. I knew that I had to decode it leading me on a journey through the ancient world, initiation, and mythology. Everything I write about today started with “The Legend.” The story taught me how we fell from unlimited beings to limited mortals. It showed me how a small child living from the True Self gains a false self. And it showed me what I had to let go to return to the freedom I dreamed of. It took me about fifteen years of working 24/7 to decode it. If you’ve not heard this story, which I call “The Legend,” you can listen to it here on MP3.

Here are many categories of beliefs. I could write many more. We have thousands of beliefs in our minds about everything. It can be overwhelming to think of all the work it takes to let them go. But remember, even removing one belief might cause a problem to never occur. We never know what belief can heal a chronic illness or save a life. I’ve often let go of beliefs and had a sense I saved someone in another part of the world. I’ve had friends or family call and say, “Did you let go of something? I just had … happen.” It is always worth it to let go. It is always compassionate to let go.

Ultimately, it is far less work to let go than to fight life and to hold on. Once you let go, you never see that problem again. Imagine if you went all the way and lived problem free. So I list many beliefs below. The beliefs are in bold print. My commentary follows some of the beliefs (not bold).

The King’s (Male True Self) Core Beliefs:

If it happened to another, it can happen to me.

The world is not as safe as I thought it was.

I need an Army (general) to keep me safe. (The general represents the false self, which we think we need.)

My love is not enough to keep my people safe.

The Priestess’ (True and False Self Female) Core Beliefs:

I can’t trust my intuition.

Love is blind.

People don’t believe me or hear me.

I’m afraid of giving advice because I could hurt someone.

It must be true because it feels so bad.

I’m not loving enough, good enough, wise enough.

I was blindsided (or I didn’t see it coming).

Men can’t be trusted. Men lie. Men deceive me.

I’ve lost my soul mate, my other half.

The General’s (False Self Male) Core Beliefs:

I trust my memory; what was right in the past is still right.

My emotions are meaningless, and I need to get rid of them.

I don’t listen to women or my own feminine.

I’m good because I’m brave or I’m a hero. (Bravery is not courage; it is the opposite of fear at the bottom of the triangle).

My job is to solve problems; and these problems are real. (Generals fix effects; they don’t fix the cause.)

Intuition is bullshit.

Knowledge or intellect is superior to wisdom.

My thinking is logical (when it really isn’t).

Beliefs falsely perpetuated by religion or gurus:

It takes lifetimes to get free.

You have to become enlightened to get free. (Free people are enlightened, but enlightened people are rarely free.)

You need a practice to get free. (Or you have to sit in a certain posture, eat a certain diet, etc., etc., etc. Of course, letting go is a practice, but a temporary one.)

You need a guru to get free. Not anymore. I’m tell you how to do it.

You will get killed if you become your True Self or you’ll be alone.

Good and evil exists outside of us. God created good and evil.

The false self or ego has power. In truth, it only has as much power as we give it by our beliefs. When we stop believing it has power, it won’t.

Something that feels bad is true.

Something win-lose is true. (Real yes; true no.)

You need someone else to free you, release you from your sins, connect you to truth, whatever.

Jesus did it for us so we don’t have to. (Yep, you just keep on believing that and see where it gets you.)

The Bible is the book of God. (It is the book of the false Gods, also called Lords or Kings in the ancient world.)

The body is not spiritual or the material plane is not spiritual. (In truth it is all spiritual).

I don’t have the answers. (Someone else does. You can’t say that anymore.)

Some people are more spiritual than others or older souls or higher castes. The elite thing is part of the illusion; they are just like us. Actually, they are less powerless than us because they are nothing without their title or pedigree.

You have to work out your Karma, and can’t be free until you do. You can’t work out your Karma, you create it faster than you can work it out. You can let it go by letting go of all of your beliefs; then karma ceases to exist.

God is up there in heaven. No s/he is in you and everyone and everything else. Heaven and hell are both right here. They are perspectives.

If I do bad things I’ll go to hell. You can’t you are already there. It is all up from here!

I need to learn the truth. You were born knowing the truth. You need to let go of whatever blocks that knowing.

I need to be more positive. You already are positive. Let go of the negative and the positive is what remains.

I need to ascend to go to the light. The True Self is ascended; it is light and dark. It is perfect. The ascension idea was from the false self since it wants to exhalt itself to the level of the True Self. You don’t have to got to Chicago if you are already there. This belief can get you killed if you are in the wrong cult.

Beliefs about Truth:

The truth hurts. (It does hurt the false self which is good thing — it is win-win to hurt a false self even if the false one doesn’t appear to like it because it validates the True Self that is hidden.)

If something causes us to feel emotion, it must be true. (This is the exact opposite of truth.) I keep repeating this one — it shows up under many categories.

If we fear or worry about something, it will stay away. (No, the reality is the magnetic emotion slowly pulls that which we fear into our reality.)

The concept of good and evil in any and all forms. (This concept is actually evil because both good and evil are co-dependent and each feel bad. Truth is rising above good and evil and ignoring all duality.)

I can’t let go of my beliefs. (We actually have beliefs that protect the beliefs.)

I’ll go to hell if I let go of my beliefs, or lose my stuff, or lose the people I love, or die.

If something happened to another, it is real and it can happen to me. (Truth and reality are not the same. What happens to another is the result of their beliefs. We do well to mind our own business.)

I should… (Many beliefs start with those words; truth never contains the word should. You can work on this one awhile.)

People can’t change; people don’t want to change; people are afraid to change.

Any thought that what we are observing or hearing and consider to be reality is true. (Reality is only the effect of our past thoughts and beliefs–that is why it changes when we let beliefs go.)

I have a subconscious mind, and I don’t know what is in it. (Great trap thanks to modern psychology, but completely false; everything you believe appears in your world somewhere. Just look at your world, and if you don’t like something, ask yourself what do I believe about this? Recognize that it is a lie that you have borrowed from another. Let it go until you no longer have it in your world hologram).

I don’t know true from false. (when confused simply let go of every thought that comes into your mind; the only thought that will not disappear is the true one — you can’t eliminate the truth).

I might accidentally let go of my true Self. (Can’t happen; what is real cannot be deleted by man — we can only remove that which is false.)

I’ll be alone if I let go of my false self because everyone else is living in the illusion. (No we are all living in reality; the illusion is a veil over reality. You’ll still be in the illusion, but you won’t be affected by it. The perfect life is to be able to go in the illusion to play and come back out when you’ve had enough.)

I have to hold on to my beliefs or …(fill in the blank).

Nothing works for me: or this process doesn’t work for me.

I’ve never heard of this before so it can’t be true.

Beliefs about Love and Relationships:

Love is doing things for others. (Rarely is that unconditional love — usually we want something in return, even if it is just the credit for the solution. Jesus didn’t wipe snotty noses.)

Love is giving attention, care, money, rewards, etc. (Love is giving, but if we give because the other thinks they need attention, care, money, then we are supporting their false self.)

If you love me, you will or should…. (fill in the blanks)

Love is about two halves making one whole or two twin flames. You are whole; you project the other half out on to your partner. (This two halfs stuff is co-dependency, which is never love; unconditional love is about two wholes making more than the sum of the two parts.)

My love is not enough. (It is when it is pure and free of conditions.) Mothers often struggle with this; I certainly have.

I have to rescue, heal, or fix my family. (That presumes that your family don’t have the truth in them or that God won’t help them and that just isn’t true. In addition, we are worthless to help anyone when we are not our True Self, and our True Self doesn’t fix things outside or see unsolvable problems, it corrects the error of thinking inside. The best and nicest think you can do to fix another is let go of the beliefs you have about them.)

I need to accept people as they are. (No way, unless of course they are their authentic True Self — To accept a false self as it is is tolerance, which is the opposite of war. What we have to do is change the belief in us that allows the person to behave as they are toward us. Then we allow them to change or leave.)

People want to control me, manipulate me. (It appears this way because the belief contains the intention of the authority figure who you borrowed the belief from.)

I have to believe what my family believes or I’ll lose them, be abandoned, or be banished.

Curses and Voodoo:

I know this category sounds funny to those of us in the civilized world. But I run across it everyday with people who are having trouble healing or removing limitations. Most of us curse others when we tell another that their ideas won’t work for them, their dreams are stupid or impractical, or their True Self is not acceptable in the world. And we all know the feeling of being told that our intuition or inspiration is wrong. When someone with some authority says these things, we believe them even if we don’t want to. They are no different than a witch doctor speaking a curse. And when we speak anything but truth to another, we are cursing them without realizing it.

I can’t let go because it is not proper or socially acceptable.

You must go to college or school to be successful.

You must diet and exercise to lose weight.

Your dad was a doctor so you should be a doctor…. or any profession.

No one has ever healed from that disease.

You have … months to live.

Do what I say, or you will lose your job.

Cool people wear….., do….., act like….

Beauty is slim, tall, with long flowing hair, and big breasts.

You’ll go to hell if you do that or are that. (spoken by people who think they know what God wants — I know for sure that God doesn’t judge, label, or limit — so the speaker is wrong).

You have to buy this workshop or program to be successful.

Artists, teachers, poets, writers, musicians don’t make money.

Beliefs about Money:

Money is tricky. We all need it to survive at this point in time. So the best way to handle money is this. Always give more than you receive. To get into the illusion, we receive more than we give. Being a child is about receiving. We are in the feminine position as a child and have nothing tangible to give to another or so we perceive. In truth, most kids give far more to their parents than the parents give to the kids. But the illusion values physical actions and products. Stay at home moms have the same issue as children. The illusion puts them on the deficit side of money. On the way out, you simply reverse this. You still earn money for your services or products, but you always give more than you receive. It is like paying down a debt. Eventually, you are just doing what you love and receiving a fair exchange for it which might be money or gifts or food or entertainment.

You have to work hard to make money; or hard work is a virtue.

Money is the root of evil. (Money is clean when used merely as a tool for exchange.)

You have to market your product or services.

You can’t make money in a bad economy. (Have you had enough of this one yet?)

Money can’t buy happiness. (It actually can because happiness is part of duality; it is the opposite of sadness. Happiness is temporal and fleeting. But money can’t buy joy, and that is what everyone really wants.)

Any fear of losing money or being without is a belief.

Recession or depression (The prefix re- is always about taking a second look at things–review, return, etc. Therefore, recession means look at what you are doing and change it to win-win. Depression is an emotional state that occurs when one is looking outside instead of inside. It is sign that it is time to clean up the mind and stop expecting others to fix your life.)

It’s too good to be true (never).

You have to manipulate or control another to make money (not in win-win).

You can’t charge money for the truth. While it is true that everyone has the truth, it is not wrong to charge for your time to help them find it. This got taken out of context because people were presenting truth like others didn’t have it. Everyone has it, but not everyone knows they have it.

Beliefs about the Body and Health:

In my personal experience, most of my health problems had to do with my beliefs about people, the world, or how people perceived me. They had nothing to do with the physical organ malfunctioning or aging.

That whatever disease you have been labeled with is true. (In this moment, it may be reality; but it is not the truth — it is not who you are — it is a lie).

That we need another to heal us or fix us. (Your True Self is the real healer; others assist us, support us, and comfort us.)

We can’t heal ourself.

It is in my genes or I inherited it. (Since all illusion is caused by belief, what we inherit is the same patterns of thinking as our family so it looks like our genes cause it).

There is no cure. (This is a death sentence, a curse). Let go of the lie that another can determine your destiny/fate.

Aging cannot be reversed or aging is a fact of life. Or you deteriorate as you age. It is a collective belief that we all share so it appears to be very persistent. But the truth is that aging is caused by the false self pushing our True Self out of our body (aura) so it goes up in the clouds and hides. When you let go, you create space for the True Self to return to the body temple. It is said by the ancients that upon completion of this, you choose your age. I’ve not proven this yet. I’ll let you know when I do.

I need medicine to heal. (That being said, don’t stop your medicine if you still believe you need it; that is just plain stupid.)

I have no power or control over my body.

I cannot change a problem in my body with my mind (or by letting go of beliefs).

Common mental traps that hide beliefs:

I don’t believe that. If you’ve heard it and it felt bad, you believe it. If you are avoiding people with those beliefs, they are in you. If you hear it and you know it is bullshit, you no longer believe it. You probably won’t even notice them saying it unless you are supporting another who has asked for help. Often we say we don’t believe something because we are living the opposite. But you can’t have 1/2 of an opposite. So delete both sides. If you get quiet, you notice you feel bad when you think about what you thought you didn’t believe.

On a related note, many people have left their progress on the table and quit letting go because their false self gave them a whopper about me or the process of letting go, and it felt bad so they believed it. Letting go never hurt anyone. Not letting go hurts everyone. The false self doesn’t give a damn about you; it just wants to win and survive. I don’t take it personally, but I hate to see someone’s progress thwarted like that. It basically means that they have a program that hates their own True Self so when someone behaves like a True Self to them, they think it is evil. Good trick, religion. One point for you.

I’d never do that. I hear people say this all the time, and truth is that they would kill or steal if the circumstances were right because they have it in them; and they are judging someone who did it, which proves they have it in them.

I was just being funny. I was just kidding. (Stop pretending you don’t believe your own beliefs; that is also stupid.)

I love being excited. I love romance. I don’t want to give those up. (They come at a high price. You might want to reconsider.)

Speaking about something negative with no emotion as if you are above it. (A real person can’t do that. Only a false mask can do such a thing because they have beliefs that protect them and they don’t manifest based on what they think; they manifest based on what they do — it is a safety net for the sleepwalkers.)

I’m getting it off my chest. (Only the false self whines, complains, or tells their story ad nauseum. Talking about it doesn’t do any good. Only recognizing that it is a lie and letting it go corrects it.)

You hurt my feelings. (Not possible. Go whine in your little corner, and grow a pair. We can only hurt our own feelings. Our feelings are the result of our thoughts. If we believe what someone says about us and it hurts, we need to look at why we believe them and let that go. We all are supporting each other in getting free unless we choose to ignore the assistance.)

(more letting go of beliefs to come…)

I know. That is a lot of beliefs, and there are tons more. I share everything you need to let go on this website and on http://nolabelsnolies.com. Support of someone who has traveled this road can make your journey go faster because you have someone watching your back. If you are interested in mentorship, you can learn more by reading about my healing and leadership coaching programs. But you don’t need it. Support is kind of like flying first class versus flying coach. You still get there, but the ride is easier in first class, and it is more fun.

I got what you intend, thankyou for putting up.Woh I am lucky to find this website through google. Being intelligent is not a felony, but most societies evaluate it as at least a misdemeanor. by Lazarus Long. fabdgefdkkgcbeeg

Dear Cathy:
Which category of the beliefs you would recommend to start with? My life is in a complete existential chaos and I feel I need to purify almost every segment of this mess, but I have been stuck so long and an identification of the starting point seems to me essential right now.
Thank you for your extremelly valuable work,
Irena.

Hi Irena,
I always start with what your mind is thinking now. Your question is common but it says you believe that some of what you are thinking is true, like it’s an existential chaos. That’s false so start there and just keep going. If our life isn’t working, our mind isn’t thinking much that is true. You can’t make a mistake. Letting go is always helpful. Your emotions will guide you. Love Cathy

Dear Cathy:
Thank you! This is surprising. Start from now, instead of digging deep, trying to find out the most damaging lies first (might be impossible anyway) and loosing time with it. Such a relief…
Irena.

Yep you can’t reach the deep stuff until you take the smaller stuff on top off. Too many people try to find the big belief and never get anywhere. If they saw the big belief they’d just believe it again. If you start with the small top stuff you build power for the big stuff. Love Cathy

Dear Cathy:
This is exactly what I need to avoid – never getting anywhere. I have also another issue, it might be common too, do you differentiate in your system “letting go” from “reject / refuse”? Could be using of the stronger “reject” more intensive and immediate in its effect, or do you see it as only wording, and we can choose what suits best? Thank you again! After this, I will be in silence for a while, I promise 🙂
Irena.

It isn’t about the words Irena, it’s about true and false. This is why I reject completely all New Age and self help teachers. They don’t get it. If you don’t get that a belief is complete false and powerless, it will create in your life. I use emotions or win-win as the reminder that the belief is false. They work best in my experience. If you get that the belief is false, you’ve let go. There is more specifics on my other blog http://nolabelsnolies.com. Cathy

The ancient wisdom keepers lived their lives based on the law of cause and effect. They never fixed a problem because a problem is an effect of a mental cause. Today, we call the mental causes beliefs.

In modern times we've become so good at projecting and suppressing our beliefs that we hide the causal beliefs even from ourselves.

We often confuse our beliefs or opinions with the truth. This causes our problems to become chronic or permanent.

If our mind believes something is true, it won't let it go. We first have to discriminate between true and false (beliefs). Then we can let the beliefs go. What remains is the truth.